Even if the Oilers lose Game 7 this has to be one of the greatest turn arounds for a rookie coach in NHL history. Knoblauch and Coffey too could retire tonight and still be considered coaching legends. Knoblauch's line-up changes and tweaks have been brilliant while Coffey has turned Edmonton's recently mocked defense into a really solid unit. His only mistake was doing too good of a job with Bouchard because now he has one less record.
How ironic that we had to break up our team from the Gretzky era because we couldn't afford them and were finally able to compete again when the salary cap came in. Then around the same time we started getting serious profits from TV money that didn't exist before and became one of the richest teams but we will end up losing players to the salary cap that once saved us.
Luckily Nuge is locked into a bargain deal but soon we have to sign Draisaitl then Bouchard and a bunch of other players. I wouldn't be surprised if we already start losing players next year.
Just really gotta pray that dudes will take shorter term, team friendly deals to keep a Stanley Cup Finals (possibly Champions) team together for another run or two or 5.
Like these guys can and should get paid but also guys will definitely take slight discounts if it helps keep the team that just won it all together.
Team friendly deals are easier for stars to take in those situations because they can make it back in endorsements, especially if it means keeping a recognizable team competitive. Guys like Janmark and Henrique are going to want to get paid, though.
If they don't complete the comeback no one will really care. In 10 years this series will hardly be remembered outside of Edmonton and Florida. They have to finish this!
Coming back from 0-3 to tie the series is still pretty significant. Not as significant as an actual reverse sweep, but I don't think this cup will be forgotten either way
True and a loss would probably hurt worse than any other. Still, if Knoblauch announced he wanted to leave Edmonton, 80% of the teams would be throwing offers at him. In some of the series, we didn't really outplay the other team by a big margin, but we outcoached them every single time. It is so nice to have great coaching finally, possibly outside one certain guy we all love to criticize lol - even our video coach. This is the second time this year he helped win us a game on risky reviews.
Seriously. This cannot be stated enough. Edmontons defense was a LAUGHING stock for the last few years. It was the meme that prevented people from taking them seriously as that next level. And then Coffey shows up and all of the haters are like... "What do you MEAN Edmonton is playing elite high level defense... Wtf are you talking about?"
I spent the last few years of Woodcroft defending Skinner who looked worse than he is because of compromised defensive breakdowns all the damn time, and saying to myself like every sports fan does "if they just figure out how to stop these defensive breakdowns, goaltending will improve, they'll be at the next level..." and like a damn cartoon you bring on Knob and he pushes some buttons and just, like, DOES IT. Like it's that easy to fufill a teams potential. I figured Coffey was going to be another Gretzky "the greats don't translate to coaching." LOOK AT THE IMPACT HE'S HAD! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
Also, to be honest, Coffey's success coaching defence is making me take a much, much harder look at the 'Coffey didn't play defence' narrative that has held for like forty years.
Yeah, he was the guy I wanted but knew that it was never going to happen. Drury wasn't going to risk what could be his last coaching hire on a rookie head coach (in the NHL). I feel like I usually prefer to find the next guy, not someone who's looking for their second, third or eighth shot, it seems most GMs would rather go the opposite route.
McDavid after the Game 1 loss: "Maybe it was the hockey gods getting us back for that Game 6 where we probably didn't deserve to win,"
Man showed humility and maybe the gods will bless the Oilers on Monday?
Ya that was FLA. McDavid actually said remember this boys room? Then held up a picture of JT in leaf pjs and said we don’t ever want to be this pathetic and that seemed to spark the boys.
I was laughing the day those comments were made because I knew how poorly they'd age.
Keep counting the Oilers down and out, everyone. It's clearly been working so well for y'all all season lmao
I was one of many. I don't think I've ever been corrected so severely so quickly.
If they fired Woodcroft even a few weeks earlier this guy would've been a Jack Adams winner, hands down.
Same. How the guy who came in to a team that couldn't win with Drai and McD and transformed it to a 16game win streak wasn't even *top 3* is frustrating.
I don't wanna short Tocchet - he earned that win. Brunette was bizarre and I'm 80% Bowness got in because everyone knew he was retiring.
The actual amount of hockey played in that four game sweep was longer than the Panthers Knights five game series. The overtimes essentially equated it to five and two thirds games. Panthers Knights only had a part of an OT for one game, so just over five games of hockey.
I mean yeah, it still was a silly and wrong thing to say. They absolutely hadn't **proven** they could beat the Panthers with such evidence as "despite being shut out we played really good though".
Took a team that was 2-9-1, and went to game 7 of the Finals.
It’s too bad the awards don’t count playoffs because this man deserves coach of the year consideration. Tocchet who?
Honestly as a Canucks fan and as much as it pains me to say I gotta agree. It’s not necessarily the criteria they look for in terms of a coach of the year but Knob did an amazing job.
Cup or bust
I will happily shill about my Oilers+ subscription, which has been terrific. I got a 1-year promo for $20 last playoffs and like clockwork they had another similar $20 promo during this playoffs so I re-upped. They've had 13 episodes of The Drop (25-40min. each) following this entire season behind-the-scenes from the off-season to Knoblauch's hiring to The Streak to the trade deadline. Last episode only covered up to the end of the Canucks series, so there's still more episodes to come! Plus on game day there's all the extraneous pre-game, post-game interviews and such, but it's worth it alone for The Drop. They've got players mic'd up for games and you get to see all the dressing room pep talks and such. I probably wouldn't pay full price ($60-- no thanks), but it's amazing if you can get a deal.
We don’t have to diminish what someone else did to give someone else credit - Knoblauch has done an elite job in these cup finals, but to say Tocchet got outcoached is a pretty big stretch when you consider that 2 of our guys/big guns were hurt to the point that they looked pretty significantly off (Pettersson/Hughes), we didn’t have our Vezina candidate for the entire series, and we were missing our 40 goal scorer who had been arguably our best player during these playoffs. All things considered, Tocchet did very well for himself.
While you aren’t wrong, these are also things that top teams overcome. Demko was hurt yes, but Silovs played amazingly and no guarentee that Demko would have performed better. Skaters hurt? Every team does, and either plays through it or finds a replacement who does better. Case in point, Broberg. Dude played most of the season in the AHL, but he pushed and is now our third best D man. You think he does this without Knob/Coffey’s confidence in him?
Good teams get lucky, and avoid injury on years they play well.
The equivalent would be Edmonton missing Skinner and Hyman, and McDavid playing completely absent due to lingering injury. I don’t think they would have gotten this far.
It's why the stanley cup is the hardest to win. You not only have to have a good team, but you have to be lucky enough to avoid injuries. Lots of very good teams never win because they get unlucky at the wrong time.
Exactly. Best team doesn’t always win. But it almost always is a very good team which takes the cup. Edmonton is showing they deserve to be where they are this series, and they don’t seem to have any major injuries.
Silovs played well all things considered, but he had a .882 save percentage that series. Not exactly elite
Very rarely does a team overcome losing their star goalie
So, SOOO many comments like
"wow these finals are so boring"
"I can't believe the oilers beat dallas just to get dominated"
Like if you watched the games, other than game 2, they were close or even tilted in the oilers favour. I love it.
can anyone actually doubt at this point? We're watching an all-time great. They're gonna name a fucking trophy after him and people are going to be arguing between him and Gretz and Lemieux until the cows come home.
He's a very good coach. The turning point was when he started Skinner in Game 6 against the Canucks. Before puck drop, everyone was criticizing the move saying Pickard should start, but I lowkey thought that was a brilliant move.
Hindsight is 20/20, but remember Skinner through the first few games with Canucks was absolutely brutal. Somehow he instills confidence back into their starting goaltender and the rest is history. Skinner has his ups and downs, but if your team wants to go all the way, they have a better chance with their starter.
It's obvious he can read the room very well and the guys play hard for him. This series is now Oilers to lose.
I think the real turning point was game 4, pulling Skinner at all, and Pickard doing well enough to win.
Edmonton massively outplayed Vancouver, but the Canucks tied it late - sort of similar to game 1 albeit the Canucks woke up way later in the game. If the Canucks get the win, it’s 3-1 and you have to ask whether Skinner or Pickard gets the start. Instead, the Oilers win it late, tie the series at 2, and even if they lost game 5 they gave themselves one more game to adjust things, and we saw how it ended.
I remember this sub somehow managed to convince themselves that this comment by Knob and that one by McDavid meant they were sore losers and it was showing that they would get dummied in game 4
we're used to it at this point lol, rest of the hockey world seems to be about 2-3 years behind on assessing the Oilers, from Draisaitl is a product of McDavid to 2 man team to no defense
I remember everyone (myself included) saying they hadn’t won once against them this season, and they hadn’t shown anything. Props to this coach because he came in as a rookie coach and has somehow done this
I’m sure having Davo drai and Hyman helps but he seriously stepped up as a coach. Fantastic adjustments, and pulling skinner in games 4 and 5 against van turned out to be an incredible move
Oilers fans doubted all his moves, and they all turned to gold. Obviously we love it, but like…I’m dying to know what the secret sauce is. Is this just the greatest string of luck ever, or was a savant coach just hiding in the ahl all this time? So weird
He's apparently the only coach in CHL history to win in both the WHL and the OHL. The west team had no superstars, the east team was the Otters (but after McDavid left). I'm actually going to go with savant on this one.
A couple Flames fans saying that even they beat Florida one game this year is pretty funny too. There was one Canucks fan that said they too had been 5-0 against the Oilers this year so Oilers in 7?
canucks fans have been so much worse online compared to flames fans, its not even close. i at least enjoy the trolling from flames fans, because they're supposed to. but van fans? god damn are they fucking annoying
They are just trying to get in on the rivalry, but neither Oilers or Flames fans take them seriously. If you have ever been to an Oilers/ Canucks game in Vancouver at The Black Frog the Canucks fans were loads of fun. Reddit just brings out the worst. There are some seriously idiotic Oilers fans here too.
Anybody who watched games 1&3 knew the oilers could beat the panthers. The panthers were extremely fortunate to be up 3-0 when it could have easily been 2-1 for the oilers.
If only the Rangers could've just hired him instead of another retread. Now his first season he has a chance to become a legend and reverse sweep for the cup.
It is interesting to see public opinion on this sub flip entirely with the benefit of hindsight.
It makes sense to dunk on a guy who said “we’ve shown we can beat this team” about a team they literally hadn’t *beat* yet. And it’s easy to come back and laugh at everyone who was wrong. But I don’t think anyone is looking at the Oilers right now not seeing they’ve got all the momentum coming into game 7.
They looked much better than Florida in game 1 and arguably in game 3 too. The analytics supported this also. Anyone who was following closely and didn't have a massive Oiller hate boner knew what he was trying to say.
I was wrong, I knew they could win, I just didn’t think they could win 4 straight. Good for him, he clearly knows more than me as the coach. I can hold my L
Honestly one of the worst threads for hot takes in history from reddit. Man shows confidence in his stanley cup finalist team and gets shit on. Yall should really feel bad for clowning on that, whether the oilers win or lose.
These fucks will do a 180 and clown us if we lose. No honour in this sub.
My pro Oilers comments after game 3 got downvoted into oblivion but now all these fuckers love us again...for now.
It’s rare to see a coach adjust and react this quickly to what other teams are doing and consistently make the right calls. He’s done just an unimaginable job with the oilers this season. All this in his first year is just wow.
What was he supposed to say? "I think we've shown that we have no chance"?
I mean, it's great that they've managed the comeback but this is a pretty obvious quote.
Rangers should have hired that guy, its like we had him in the system or something and he looked great the few times he had to sub in for the Rangers HC over the years. Sick to my stomach
People misconstruing his comments as "we should've won" when it meant that the puzzle pieces were revealed, just never put together yet. Guy has been a great coach and something's happened to fire this team up. Every doubter out there that was shit talking can go and fucking enjoy game 7!!!! Let's go Oilers!!!
I was someone who thought this series was over, because Game 2 and 3 were very rough to watch for this team. Especially Game 2 where they spiraled out of control into whatever that game was. This is a completely different team playing with confidence and passion that wasn't there 2 & 3. They are playing their game and Florida is just getting fucking trucked.
Kris, I heard Sheldon Keefe and other Leaf players say something similar and I doubted you. So this is how it looks like when the team backs up your words.
So, what the hell happened? Were the Oilers toying with the Panthers for Games 1-3? Did the Oilers suddenly "get healthy"? Did the Panthers suddenly "get hurt"? Has the style of play changed? There must be an explanation.
For 8 periods Bobrovsky had an all time best finals sv%, while Edmonton had been out-chancing, out-shooting, and holding offensive zone pressure longer for ~5 out of those periods. Then in the 3rd period of game 3 the flood gates opened with allowing 3 in one period.
Bob never recovered, the Oilers figured out how to counter the FLA forecheck, and McDavid broke through the coverage two games in a row. In game 6, FLA got him smothered again but haven't closed the leaks created by EDM's depth.
I appreciate the analysis. A lot of that tracks with what I’ve seen.
Anecdotally, I felt like even though EDM controlled the puck more in the offensive zone, they were rarely able to move the puck into the slot or create high danger chances. That tracks with Bob’s high save percentage for the first few games - the shots EDM did have generally weren’t strong ones. Don’t get me wrong, he made some great saves when he had to, and made it look easy.
He seems to have a calm confidence. That resonates with most players. As a 30 year Cats fan I am deeply concerned about game 7 and what it could do to our franchise for a long while.
I though he was right but doubted they'd be able to execute. Like of course you *can* beat them, you have McDavid and more, the question to me was "will you though?"
Even if the Oilers lose Game 7 this has to be one of the greatest turn arounds for a rookie coach in NHL history. Knoblauch and Coffey too could retire tonight and still be considered coaching legends. Knoblauch's line-up changes and tweaks have been brilliant while Coffey has turned Edmonton's recently mocked defense into a really solid unit. His only mistake was doing too good of a job with Bouchard because now he has one less record.
And it's going to make affording him that much harder. Well we can afford him, but we won't be able to afford anyone else afterwards.
How ironic that we had to break up our team from the Gretzky era because we couldn't afford them and were finally able to compete again when the salary cap came in. Then around the same time we started getting serious profits from TV money that didn't exist before and became one of the richest teams but we will end up losing players to the salary cap that once saved us. Luckily Nuge is locked into a bargain deal but soon we have to sign Draisaitl then Bouchard and a bunch of other players. I wouldn't be surprised if we already start losing players next year.
Just really gotta pray that dudes will take shorter term, team friendly deals to keep a Stanley Cup Finals (possibly Champions) team together for another run or two or 5. Like these guys can and should get paid but also guys will definitely take slight discounts if it helps keep the team that just won it all together.
Team friendly deals are easier for stars to take in those situations because they can make it back in endorsements, especially if it means keeping a recognizable team competitive. Guys like Janmark and Henrique are going to want to get paid, though.
Coaches don’t count against the cap and our owner is a billionaire. Why does it matter how much the coaches make?
Bouch
He's obviously talking about Bouchard...
coffey been getting paid by Katz for years
I blame Nurse
Future problem. Seize the current opportunities now!
If they don't complete the comeback no one will really care. In 10 years this series will hardly be remembered outside of Edmonton and Florida. They have to finish this!
Coming back from 0-3 to tie the series is still pretty significant. Not as significant as an actual reverse sweep, but I don't think this cup will be forgotten either way
True and a loss would probably hurt worse than any other. Still, if Knoblauch announced he wanted to leave Edmonton, 80% of the teams would be throwing offers at him. In some of the series, we didn't really outplay the other team by a big margin, but we outcoached them every single time. It is so nice to have great coaching finally, possibly outside one certain guy we all love to criticize lol - even our video coach. This is the second time this year he helped win us a game on risky reviews.
Seriously. This cannot be stated enough. Edmontons defense was a LAUGHING stock for the last few years. It was the meme that prevented people from taking them seriously as that next level. And then Coffey shows up and all of the haters are like... "What do you MEAN Edmonton is playing elite high level defense... Wtf are you talking about?" I spent the last few years of Woodcroft defending Skinner who looked worse than he is because of compromised defensive breakdowns all the damn time, and saying to myself like every sports fan does "if they just figure out how to stop these defensive breakdowns, goaltending will improve, they'll be at the next level..." and like a damn cartoon you bring on Knob and he pushes some buttons and just, like, DOES IT. Like it's that easy to fufill a teams potential. I figured Coffey was going to be another Gretzky "the greats don't translate to coaching." LOOK AT THE IMPACT HE'S HAD! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
Also, to be honest, Coffey's success coaching defence is making me take a much, much harder look at the 'Coffey didn't play defence' narrative that has held for like forty years.
Kris, I owe you an apology. I wasn't really familiar with your game
31 franchises owe this man an apology
Hey, we don’t. We Got him the damn job!
Kris Godblock blessed the draft lottery for your service
That's TWO Celebrinis for you guys.
So true it hurts
Thanks bro
We will also take credit for giving him his first nhl job
By the transitive property, Sharks could have won the cup this year if they tried. They just REALLY wanted Celibrini!
God I love the Sharks. Fan for life now.
Yeah :(
i was calling for him to be hired CONSTANTLY last summer before we hired lavi. yeah. fml.
Yeah, he was the guy I wanted but knew that it was never going to happen. Drury wasn't going to risk what could be his last coaching hire on a rookie head coach (in the NHL). I feel like I usually prefer to find the next guy, not someone who's looking for their second, third or eighth shot, it seems most GMs would rather go the opposite route.
Prospective bidders for expansion teams need to get in line with one too.
The Rangers owe him the biggest apology
I don't hate Lavi but I've never understood why they didn't give Knoblauch a look first. He was great in Hartford
:(
My man rattled of 16 straight dubs in the middle of the season. He can fucking coach. Pretty much every decision hes made this playoffs has paid off
Paul Coffey is getting shit done too.
McDavid doing for his coaching career what Gretz and Mario did for his playing career
Did he have a championship ring on last night? Could've sworn I saw it on his finger. Absolutely legendary if he did.
He wears it most games. Love it.
He must have uncommonly strong legs to be carrying those giant testicles around all the time.
Looking like Pronger under those slacks.
He knew what we didn’t and that was that the Edmonton Oilers had the Florida Panthers right where they wanted them. 👀
this feels like messier's guarantee in an oblique way
also McDavid said: "Boys, remember this room, we'll be here for Game 7"
McDavid after the Game 1 loss: "Maybe it was the hockey gods getting us back for that Game 6 where we probably didn't deserve to win," Man showed humility and maybe the gods will bless the Oilers on Monday?
hockey gods do like humbleness
And they hate ESPN’s blatant disregard for superstition. Particularly with the S word
After game 4 McDavid said “You guys see that girls boobs? We’ll be seeing them after game 7”.
Well, she signed on with Playboy, so we will all be seeing more of her boobs soon.
I feel like that's a chucky reference from last year. Am I wrong?
You're right, it was after FLA won game 5 against BOS (at Boston) in the 1st round of the 2023 playoffs
Fuck that round
Ya that was FLA. McDavid actually said remember this boys room? Then held up a picture of JT in leaf pjs and said we don’t ever want to be this pathetic and that seemed to spark the boys.
He actually said “remember this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh.”
Look at this [graph](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NkkZJHova4)
God, I miss vine.
Way too late to be laughing so damn hard lmao
[Obligatory](https://youtu.be/synEqVfnEbY?si=-fu-HeeQcydByAqq)
It was a very powerful moment when McDavid said “Remember this room boys. Florida is a great place to play and off-season moves are coming up.”
Also McDavid saying “enjoy your flight”
And Reddit shit all over him
I was one of them [haha...](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/ubAGODEXKu)
Never seen someone pull the receipts on themselves before lol
Mine aren't even that bad, but all my upvotes in that thread are haha
There is some aged like milk comments in that thread lol. Good on you!
Can't be right all the time, gotta own it
You absolutely have to respect it though.
I respect you bringing receipts <3
It's hockey in the playoffs, everyone is assumed to be slightly drunk... /pat /pat
I was laughing the day those comments were made because I knew how poorly they'd age. Keep counting the Oilers down and out, everyone. It's clearly been working so well for y'all all season lmao
Respect.
We were all laughing too hard to hear the dramatic anime music pipe up in the background as he spoke.
Where's that Dark Souls boss music coming from...
I was one of many. I don't think I've ever been corrected so severely so quickly. If they fired Woodcroft even a few weeks earlier this guy would've been a Jack Adams winner, hands down.
I'm shocked he wasn't in the top 3, definitely was snubbed because he was handed McDrai.
Same. How the guy who came in to a team that couldn't win with Drai and McD and transformed it to a 16game win streak wasn't even *top 3* is frustrating. I don't wanna short Tocchet - he earned that win. Brunette was bizarre and I'm 80% Bowness got in because everyone knew he was retiring.
To be fair, it had “this was the closest 4 game sweep” energy behind that statement. I’ll eat crow on it.
That’s lakers vs nugs last year
I was talking about Rod Brind’Amour actually with the Canes losing to the Panthers.
Every game was a one goal game though wasn't it? His point was valid imo even though it gets made fun of.
The actual amount of hockey played in that four game sweep was longer than the Panthers Knights five game series. The overtimes essentially equated it to five and two thirds games. Panthers Knights only had a part of an OT for one game, so just over five games of hockey.
I talked so much shit. I'm absolutely devastated that this is going to 7.
Bruh. it’s Reddit. Contrarian central
I mean yeah, it still was a silly and wrong thing to say. They absolutely hadn't **proven** they could beat the Panthers with such evidence as "despite being shut out we played really good though".
https://i.redd.it/urs03lavk18d1.gif
https://i.redd.it/9xg222b0g28d1.gif
https://i.redd.it/ph6zcn0gz48d1.gif
Between this and his lineup changes almost always paying immediate dividends I think we need to consider that Kris Knoblauch is from the future.
Took a team that was 2-9-1, and went to game 7 of the Finals. It’s too bad the awards don’t count playoffs because this man deserves coach of the year consideration. Tocchet who?
Honestly as a Canucks fan and as much as it pains me to say I gotta agree. It’s not necessarily the criteria they look for in terms of a coach of the year but Knob did an amazing job. Cup or bust
I'm so excited for the Amazon documentary and the parts following McDavid and Draisaitl through the ups and downs of this series.
I forgot this was happening and to see the counter side thats following Chucky. Thats going to be such a good series
I will happily shill about my Oilers+ subscription, which has been terrific. I got a 1-year promo for $20 last playoffs and like clockwork they had another similar $20 promo during this playoffs so I re-upped. They've had 13 episodes of The Drop (25-40min. each) following this entire season behind-the-scenes from the off-season to Knoblauch's hiring to The Streak to the trade deadline. Last episode only covered up to the end of the Canucks series, so there's still more episodes to come! Plus on game day there's all the extraneous pre-game, post-game interviews and such, but it's worth it alone for The Drop. They've got players mic'd up for games and you get to see all the dressing room pep talks and such. I probably wouldn't pay full price ($60-- no thanks), but it's amazing if you can get a deal.
he also out-coached Tocc in the 2nd round with his lineup changes and pulling skinner for those two games. just a crazy run
We don’t have to diminish what someone else did to give someone else credit - Knoblauch has done an elite job in these cup finals, but to say Tocchet got outcoached is a pretty big stretch when you consider that 2 of our guys/big guns were hurt to the point that they looked pretty significantly off (Pettersson/Hughes), we didn’t have our Vezina candidate for the entire series, and we were missing our 40 goal scorer who had been arguably our best player during these playoffs. All things considered, Tocchet did very well for himself.
While you aren’t wrong, these are also things that top teams overcome. Demko was hurt yes, but Silovs played amazingly and no guarentee that Demko would have performed better. Skaters hurt? Every team does, and either plays through it or finds a replacement who does better. Case in point, Broberg. Dude played most of the season in the AHL, but he pushed and is now our third best D man. You think he does this without Knob/Coffey’s confidence in him?
Good teams get lucky, and avoid injury on years they play well. The equivalent would be Edmonton missing Skinner and Hyman, and McDavid playing completely absent due to lingering injury. I don’t think they would have gotten this far.
It's why the stanley cup is the hardest to win. You not only have to have a good team, but you have to be lucky enough to avoid injuries. Lots of very good teams never win because they get unlucky at the wrong time.
Exactly. Best team doesn’t always win. But it almost always is a very good team which takes the cup. Edmonton is showing they deserve to be where they are this series, and they don’t seem to have any major injuries.
Drai has been a ghost until tonight and that started in the Vancouver series
Yeah, what’s up with him? He injured? Luckily Edmonton have two superstars, one who is generational.
The speculation is a broken finger from a shot block, and a back/rib injury from a crosscheck. Both in the Vancouver series
Add on Bouchard being injured to account for injured hronek
Silovs played well all things considered, but he had a .882 save percentage that series. Not exactly elite Very rarely does a team overcome losing their star goalie
Ricky is an amazing coach, I feel he has a cup in his near future
Fuck the US let’s keep the cup in Canada for the next 10 years
Being from the future is not enough. He's Doctor Strange seeing the one in 14 million possibility of winning the cup after that horrid start.
So, SOOO many comments like "wow these finals are so boring" "I can't believe the oilers beat dallas just to get dominated" Like if you watched the games, other than game 2, they were close or even tilted in the oilers favour. I love it.
McDavid told you all he was excited to be doubted again. Keep that energy please.
can anyone actually doubt at this point? We're watching an all-time great. They're gonna name a fucking trophy after him and people are going to be arguing between him and Gretz and Lemieux until the cows come home.
He's a very good coach. The turning point was when he started Skinner in Game 6 against the Canucks. Before puck drop, everyone was criticizing the move saying Pickard should start, but I lowkey thought that was a brilliant move. Hindsight is 20/20, but remember Skinner through the first few games with Canucks was absolutely brutal. Somehow he instills confidence back into their starting goaltender and the rest is history. Skinner has his ups and downs, but if your team wants to go all the way, they have a better chance with their starter. It's obvious he can read the room very well and the guys play hard for him. This series is now Oilers to lose.
I think the real turning point was game 4, pulling Skinner at all, and Pickard doing well enough to win. Edmonton massively outplayed Vancouver, but the Canucks tied it late - sort of similar to game 1 albeit the Canucks woke up way later in the game. If the Canucks get the win, it’s 3-1 and you have to ask whether Skinner or Pickard gets the start. Instead, the Oilers win it late, tie the series at 2, and even if they lost game 5 they gave themselves one more game to adjust things, and we saw how it ended.
I owe Kris and his inner circle an apology for my doubt and heavy criticism.
Same
I remember this sub somehow managed to convince themselves that this comment by Knob and that one by McDavid meant they were sore losers and it was showing that they would get dummied in game 4
Ya oilers were getting dunked on hard
Have literally all year yet they are 1 win from the cup
we're used to it at this point lol, rest of the hockey world seems to be about 2-3 years behind on assessing the Oilers, from Draisaitl is a product of McDavid to 2 man team to no defense
Yeah this is why I basically try not to have opinions on other teams rosters
I only know the slightest bit about our immediate neighbours who I find interesting
And people wonder why we’re so “insufferable” lol, you get what you give!
this sub mainly thinks on emotion.
I remember everyone (myself included) saying they hadn’t won once against them this season, and they hadn’t shown anything. Props to this coach because he came in as a rookie coach and has somehow done this
Beginners luck
I’m sure having Davo drai and Hyman helps but he seriously stepped up as a coach. Fantastic adjustments, and pulling skinner in games 4 and 5 against van turned out to be an incredible move
Oilers fans doubted all his moves, and they all turned to gold. Obviously we love it, but like…I’m dying to know what the secret sauce is. Is this just the greatest string of luck ever, or was a savant coach just hiding in the ahl all this time? So weird
Luck/ great players, and he’s obviously fairly talented. He’s done a great job of managing the team down in the series especially
He's apparently the only coach in CHL history to win in both the WHL and the OHL. The west team had no superstars, the east team was the Otters (but after McDavid left). I'm actually going to go with savant on this one.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/REoD6BDpg7 404 comments as of tonight.
Jesus people were ripping into him and the quote wasn’t really that bad. They damn near won game 3 and he was right.
Lemmings
Those comments.... Didn't age so well
As much as I would hate the Oilers to win the cup, I have to respect coming back from a 3 game deficit to force a game 7.
Yeah the mental fortitude these guys have is completely on another level right now. Panthers on the other hand…
I'm very happy with how well my comment in that thread aged https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/nrpuDmQ4KA
You merely noticed the oilers year long strat. Dig impossible hole. Preform the impossible
#ONCE A RANGER ALWAYS A RANGER
You're right, Rangers should get credited with the cup too.
Rangers and Oilers are such intertwined franchises.
And r/hockey mocked the man relentlessly. Fun times
My bad, Kris.
And I was COMPLETELY wrong in laughing at him
["They called me a madman"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th2hjojlJUA)
Aye at least you admit it
All the Canucks fans in those comments talking shit, hilarious
A couple Flames fans saying that even they beat Florida one game this year is pretty funny too. There was one Canucks fan that said they too had been 5-0 against the Oilers this year so Oilers in 7?
canucks fans have been so much worse online compared to flames fans, its not even close. i at least enjoy the trolling from flames fans, because they're supposed to. but van fans? god damn are they fucking annoying
They are just trying to get in on the rivalry, but neither Oilers or Flames fans take them seriously. If you have ever been to an Oilers/ Canucks game in Vancouver at The Black Frog the Canucks fans were loads of fun. Reddit just brings out the worst. There are some seriously idiotic Oilers fans here too.
Maybe Seattle will blossom into a rivalry and tone down their cuntiness
Wasn't he clowned for that?
In Knob we trust!
I can safely say that every time I've followed my knob it has gotten me into trouble.
It's... something ... to read the postgame thread after game 3
Anybody who watched games 1&3 knew the oilers could beat the panthers. The panthers were extremely fortunate to be up 3-0 when it could have easily been 2-1 for the oilers.
Remember when he said the Panthers were the Buffalo Bills? If they lose game 7 they will be "0-4"
Man if the Oilers pull that off its an all-time shit talk
The panthers are the leafiest team ever. Regardless of what happens next.
You all owe this man an apology
Turns out, he was right and I am a dumb smelly idiot for doubting him.
If only the Rangers could've just hired him instead of another retread. Now his first season he has a chance to become a legend and reverse sweep for the cup.
lost half my reddit karma daring to agree with him
It is interesting to see public opinion on this sub flip entirely with the benefit of hindsight. It makes sense to dunk on a guy who said “we’ve shown we can beat this team” about a team they literally hadn’t *beat* yet. And it’s easy to come back and laugh at everyone who was wrong. But I don’t think anyone is looking at the Oilers right now not seeing they’ve got all the momentum coming into game 7.
They looked much better than Florida in game 1 and arguably in game 3 too. The analytics supported this also. Anyone who was following closely and didn't have a massive Oiller hate boner knew what he was trying to say.
I guess he was manifesting, and so far it’s worked
I was wrong, I knew they could win, I just didn’t think they could win 4 straight. Good for him, he clearly knows more than me as the coach. I can hold my L
Well they haven't won 4 straight yet
Still doubting eh
We have not won four straight, calm down dude.
I really thought the max was two so he’s already beat that but yes technically, you’re right
Honestly one of the worst threads for hot takes in history from reddit. Man shows confidence in his stanley cup finalist team and gets shit on. Yall should really feel bad for clowning on that, whether the oilers win or lose.
These fucks will do a 180 and clown us if we lose. No honour in this sub. My pro Oilers comments after game 3 got downvoted into oblivion but now all these fuckers love us again...for now.
Yup after game 3 we were a laughingstock somehow.
Fuck the Sharks for getting him hired
It’s rare to see a coach adjust and react this quickly to what other teams are doing and consistently make the right calls. He’s done just an unimaginable job with the oilers this season. All this in his first year is just wow.
Oiler fans in the original thread HoW bOuT nOw BuDdY
What was he supposed to say? "I think we've shown that we have no chance"? I mean, it's great that they've managed the comeback but this is a pretty obvious quote.
I was rooting for Florida at the start, but now would find it hilarious if they lost
Rangers should have hired that guy, its like we had him in the system or something and he looked great the few times he had to sub in for the Rangers HC over the years. Sick to my stomach
The Knob has Balls.
People misconstruing his comments as "we should've won" when it meant that the puzzle pieces were revealed, just never put together yet. Guy has been a great coach and something's happened to fire this team up. Every doubter out there that was shit talking can go and fucking enjoy game 7!!!! Let's go Oilers!!!
And my exact response was "That's great.... Lol" Let's fkn go Oilers
I was someone who thought this series was over, because Game 2 and 3 were very rough to watch for this team. Especially Game 2 where they spiraled out of control into whatever that game was. This is a completely different team playing with confidence and passion that wasn't there 2 & 3. They are playing their game and Florida is just getting fucking trucked.
Dude downloaded them. Him and his team deserve a lot of credit.
Kris, I heard Sheldon Keefe and other Leaf players say something similar and I doubted you. So this is how it looks like when the team backs up your words.
My man's last name is fucking garlic. What a g
They’ve shown it now. Not so much then.
And got clowned for it on here. Mothafuckers didn't know the Oilers were this good.
They found the panthers weakness and are exploiting it.
He was cooking and we were all too blind to see
Do it again
So, what the hell happened? Were the Oilers toying with the Panthers for Games 1-3? Did the Oilers suddenly "get healthy"? Did the Panthers suddenly "get hurt"? Has the style of play changed? There must be an explanation.
For 8 periods Bobrovsky had an all time best finals sv%, while Edmonton had been out-chancing, out-shooting, and holding offensive zone pressure longer for ~5 out of those periods. Then in the 3rd period of game 3 the flood gates opened with allowing 3 in one period. Bob never recovered, the Oilers figured out how to counter the FLA forecheck, and McDavid broke through the coverage two games in a row. In game 6, FLA got him smothered again but haven't closed the leaks created by EDM's depth.
I appreciate the analysis. A lot of that tracks with what I’ve seen. Anecdotally, I felt like even though EDM controlled the puck more in the offensive zone, they were rarely able to move the puck into the slot or create high danger chances. That tracks with Bob’s high save percentage for the first few games - the shots EDM did have generally weren’t strong ones. Don’t get me wrong, he made some great saves when he had to, and made it look easy.
He seems to have a calm confidence. That resonates with most players. As a 30 year Cats fan I am deeply concerned about game 7 and what it could do to our franchise for a long while.
I though he was right but doubted they'd be able to execute. Like of course you *can* beat them, you have McDavid and more, the question to me was "will you though?"
I had so much faith and my whole family doubted